Dukes claims neutrality cuts little ice within EU

IRELAND's "moral authority of neutrality cuts very little ice" with its EU neighbours, the chairman of the Dail's foreign policy committee, Mr Alan Dukes, said.

Speaking at the Humbert Summer School in Ballina, Co Mayo, in a foreign policy debate on "Ireland at the Heart of Europe", the former Fine Gael leader added that decisions inspired by Ireland's "neutral stance" have marginalised it and kept it out of organisations where foreign policy decisions are made effective, such as Nato and the Western European Union.

France was not influenced by Ireland's moral authority to stop its nuclear tests. He believed this had to do with a view that "uninvolved neutrals, who have deliberately put themselves on the sidelines, have nothing valid to say about what happens on the field of play, never mind the battlefield".

From a Scottish perspective, Ireland was very definitely at the heart of Europe, Mr Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), said. Ireland was an "inspiration", in its role in Europe, to the SNP, which wants an independent Scotland.

"We are the 21st richest country in the world. We possess over 70 per cent of the EU's energy reserves," Mr Salmond said. "One in three of the world's personal computers are made in Scotland. We export more per head than Germany or Japan and far more than England.

"And yet we currently put up with second class status, with no direct access to European decision making. We struggle with an economy that underperforms and yet look across the Irish Sea to our next door neighbour, which was recently described by the Financial Times as the "tiger economy of Europe".

In a speech on Ireland's EU Presidency, the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr Padraic McKeinan, said the Inter Governmental Conference (IGC) discussions were taking place when there was a "great deal of uncertainty, a great deal of holding back".

He cited as an example the changing date of the British general election. This had an impact on the extent to which governments were prepared to bargain, and was part of the "delicate background" to the negotiations on the IGC, the 18 month long review of the Maastricht Treaty.

There were the increasingly complex challenges of unemployment, EMU and the implications of enlargement. Mr McKernan said Europe was at the heart of Ireland, and it was crucial for the country's economic development that the European project succeeded.

He said the EU had succeeded by the "skin of our teeth" in dealing with the crisis in Mostar, and this success was important for the successful conduct of the Bosnian elections next month.

However, RTE's foreign editor, Mr Andrew Sheppard, earlier suggested that Ireland should call for the postponement of the elections in Bosnia.

Mr Matti Kohva, head of the EU office in Finland, said that joining the EU was very important for security reasons. Before the country had no choices, but now as an EU member, it had. He stressed that the main reason Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary wanted to join was for security and stability.

Mr David Haworth, an EU consultant, said there were nearly always unrealistic expectations for an EU presidency, and in Ireland's case what really matters is that the Inter Governmental Conference gets off to a good start".